Innocent Bystanders

And on the Single-Payer Healthcare Front… November 4, 2015

Even after hearing for years about the wonders of single-payer healthcare in general, and the UK’s single-payer system in particular, my skepticism was never really challenged. And now I’m feeling vindicated:

The UK has one of the worst healthcare systems in the developed world according to a damning new report which said the nation has an “outstandingly poor” record of preventing ill health.

Hospitals are now so short-staffed and underequipped that people are also dying needlessly because of a chronic lack of investment. The verdict, from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), will make embarrassing reading for David Cameron who denied the cash-strapped NHS is heading for its worst winter crisis.

Staff are too rushed to improve levels of care that have in many areas fallen below countries such as Turkey, Portugal and Poland. Almost 75,000 more doctors and nurses are needed to match standards in similar countries the OECD said in its annual Health at a Glance study comparing the quality of healthcare across 34 countries.

To be fair, these problems were probably not as bad in the past, before the foreign population doubled. But even in the 90’s, 11% of UK citizens carried additional private insurance, and a similar number opted to pay in cash, so they could avoid long waits and get access to better facilities.